Is Attachment Theory Always Reliable as a Measure of Child Welfare? by Nandita Chaudhary and Heidi Keller

Professors Nandita Chaudhary and Heidi Keller question the application of Attachment Theory in the field of child development. They point out various settings in which the universalising methods and practices of Attachment Theory would not apply and would lead to an incorrect evaluation of there being attachment failure between a parent and child. This paper has important insights for child protection as Attachment Theory is a key tenet of modern child protection thinking. Child protection agencies are removing babies and toddlers by judging the attachment with a parent (usually the mother) to have ‘failed’ even where there is no actual evidence of harm to the child.

India Should Not Adopt A Western-Style Child Protection System by Joe Burns

Joe Burns is a prominent international activist and critic of Western Child Protection Services (CPS) from the Republic of Ireland. Over the last decade he has helped numerous innocent families, including many Indian ones, facing persecution by European child protection agencies. Read on for why Joe Burns warns India to develop her own child protection system and not adopt the Western one which is, in fact, abusing children in the name of child protection.

Governments Removing Children from Families on Inadequate and Fraudulent Grounds by Christopher Booker

Distinguished journalist Christopher Booker writes about systemic dysfunction in Britain’s child protection system, which is unfortunately being replicated by governments around the world, including India. Christopher Booker has been reporting the wrongful removal of children by British Social Services since 2009. In this article he describes the widespread commercialisation of Britain’s child care system, one-sided inquires in child protection cases that are weighed against the parents every step of the way, and the abuse of children in the custody of foster carers which is causing untold suffering of parents and children targeted by a child protection system that has become “horribly corrupted from the initial high-minded ideals for which it was set up”.

Part 1: Indian NGOs and Child Welfare Committees traumatise Nat children in the name of “child protection” by Madhu Kishwar

Well-known academic, writer and human rights activist Madhu Kishwar describes the harassment faced by Nat children under poorly thought-out child and social welfare laws. The Nats are an impoverished community of wandering acrobatic performers, whose performance traditions go back hundreds of years. Rather than uplifting Nat children, the Indian child rights laws along with NGOs and Child Welfare Committees implementing them are compounding the problems arising from their parents’ poverty and lack of work opportunities.